|
Hey all-
Well, yesterday was the first day I had stuff falling off the Hawg and shooting the gun.
After an extensive brief, we 'got dressed' and went out the the airplanes...which had 4 TERs (triple ejector racks) with a total of 12 BDU-33 practice bombs loaded on them. I did my normal aircraft preflight, then did another separate preflight of the weapons. Everything looked good, I hopped in and 5 minutes later both motors were turning and I was running before taxi checks and getting the NAV system up.
I taxiied out as number two...my lead is a Desert Storm vet, and one of the more highly respected IPs here. He is known as a 'Hammer', but I am eager to fly with him because I know I'll learn a lot. We get to the arming area, and the normal EOR crew goes over the airplane to make sure it's good to go. Then, quite unexpectedly, a voice comes over the airplane's intercom system. "Hello? Hello?" Oh, yeah, I forgot...the weapons guys hook into the intercom while they are doing their thing, pulling pins on the bombs and making the gun hot. I tell them I am hands clear, with switches safe/normal/off, and I see the guys pulling a myriad of flags from the airplane and stuffing them into the cover for the refueling panel. With that, they are all done, and the arming chief wishes me a good ride. Lead gives me the visual signal for a frequency change to tower, then the signal to lower canopies...he checks me in on tower, and we have to wait for a few B-52s to touch and go before we can take the runway.
That's the perfect opportunity to get out my Vis-a-vis water-based marker and start writing on the canopy. Old school guys use grease pencil, and I have one as a backup, but the Vis-a-vis works really nicely with less smearing and easier clean up. We are going to be working Claiborne range, near the old England AFB. The range uses a left hand conventional pattern, so I write my info on the left side of the canopy...that way, I can simply shift my vision from the canopy to the target without having to look across from the right canopy to the target. I draw a 'bomb ladder', which shows me the base altitide and airspeed, track altitude as I'm coming down the chute, release altitude, abort altitude, and a few other parameters for the types of bombing we'll be doing today. All this stuff is already written down on a card, and most guys wind up memorizing these numbers. In combat, you wouldn't do this, because you're going to be writing other more important information like a nine line from a ground FAC, and you most likely won't be able to pre-plan release altitudes since you may not know the target elevation in advance. However, since I'm new, it's a huge help to have this information readily available.
Finally the last BUFF is out of our way, and we're cleared onto the runway. Lead puts his main tire as close to the threshold as I've ever seen anyone go, and makes a relatively tight turn to line up on his half of the runway. He rolls forward a little bit, and this doesn't give me much room to screw up getting into position. I follow his lead and hug the edge of the runway, then wait to the last minute before using full nosewheel deflection to make the turn into my half of the runway. Sure enough, I barely get the nosewheel straightened out and I'm in position on him. We ge takeoff clearance, and he gives me the runup signal and switches us to departure frequency. We check in on departure, and he releases the brakes and launches down the runway. I note the seconds on my clock, wait until 10 seconds elapses, then release my brakes. Airborne, I get the gear, the flaps up, and notice lead make a huge honking left turn at the departure end of the runway. This is a good thing, since if gives me lots of angle on him to allow me to get back into route formation quicker. I delay my turn to get 'on the line' to make my rejoin, then roll up into 90 degrees of bank, honk on the stick, roll out, and find myself relatively close to the rejoin line about 1500 to 2000 feet out. I quickly close the distance and join up on lead, check over his airplane to make sure no bombs have fallen off his bird during the takeoff. Right now, I'm about two ship widths (roughly 110-120 feet) from him...I line up his wingtip on the star & bar on the side of the fuselage, look for a 'V' shape between the two vertical stabilizers, fly co-altitude and find myself in a decent position, always making very small corrections to stay where lead wants me. After I take a good look at his jet, I move it out to 500 feet, so I can concentrate on clearing for traffic, systems checks, etc., without worrying about running into lead. That would upset him a little bit, and I would probably hook the ride.
Enroute to the range, we stay around 3500 feet and he kicks me out to a line abreast formation. This is flying 6000 to 9000 feet across from one another, sometimes with an altitude stack (difference in altitude between aircraft. The trick comes when it's time to turn the jets...in closer formation, lead can turn and I can stay with him no problem. However, if he commands a 90 degree left turn, and I'm on the left, if I make the turn the same time he does I wind up a mile out in front of him! Instead, he turns into me, and I delay my turn...just keep driving straight, until he disappears behind my tail...THEN I make the turn, using a MAX power, 4G pull...if I play the roll out correctly, I will wind up line abreast from him on the opposite side from where I started. It's pretty cool once you get the hang of it, and can get a little tricky for 45 degree turns, or turns that aren't exactly 45, 90, or 180 degrees. It's my job as wingman to always be in position, so even if lead does something wrong, I have to immediately correct to get back in position.
Soon enough we enter the range complex, and lead hands the 'navigational lead' over to me. I'm still two, but he's flying chase off me and talking me around the range. We go over at 2500 feet, and he points out the different targets we'll be dropping on. After the first time around, we arm up the bombs and set up for a dry practice run, 10 degrees of dive, simulating a high drab MK82 AIR delivery. First pass goes okay, so now the master arm goes hot and it's time to put the 'thing' on the 'thing' and push the pickle button.
I roll in, check my parameters...and when the pipper's death dot (the thing) gets onto the target (the other thing) I squeeze the pickle button. Compared to the AT-38, this is cake...all this green stuff in my HUD makes it a lot easier to make a decent pass. I also don't feel the bomb come off the jet, unlike the AT-38, but as soon as I pickle I start pulling for my safe escape maneuver. I get the nose 30 degrees above the horizon, then roll to crosswind...and as I do so I see the white marking charge from my BDU-33 just a tad short of the target. DARN IT! The range controller comes over and calls my score...11 at 5. From the run-in heading, my bomb hit 11 meters at the 5 o'clock position. Yes, any bomb that lands within 23 meters on this event is a qualifier, but I'm still upset that with all this gee-whiz HUD stuff I didn't get a direct hit.
Okay, time to review in my mind what I did...was the pipper really on the target? Did I pickle too soon? Did I pump the stick at the last second, or as the bomb was coming off the jet? I think that I pickled early, and try to remind myself to be patient and wait until the thing is on the thing before pushing the button next time.
Next pass...okay, looking good down the chute, parameters are coming along nicely, bomb fall line is going right through the target, wait for it...ground is getting bigger....WAIT FOR IT....GROUND IS GETTING EVEN BIGGER...just before planned release altitude, thing is on the thing...PICKLE...pull off, safe escape....whew! Only now do I realize my breathing has really quickened, and that I'm almost soaked even with the air conditioning cranked up. As I turn crosswind, I look to see where the smoke is...WOW! Looks REALLY close to the center of the target! The ranger comes over the radio with, "SHAAAAAAAAAAQ, TWO!" ALRIGHT! Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! A direct hit, and on my second pass. It can only go downhill from here, but it still feels good.
We switch targets, from the conventional bomb circle to a tactical target. My job is now to bomb an old M113 APC, the middle vehicle in a 'convoy' of three. My first pass is atrocious, and I come off dry without releasing the bomb because I failed to adjust my base position for the new target. Second time around, I score a 4 at 7. We switch to the 30 degree dive bombs, and all my bombs qualify. On the second tactical target we worked, I get another shaq. Man, is this a blast!
We go winchester with the bombs, and it feels like we've been at the range FOREVER...in the AT-38, you only had half the bombs and less than half the gas, so things went quickly. NOW, its' time for some REAL fun...
We set up for a practice 30 degree high angle strafe shot. The first pass on every event is dry, so we go through the motions and I make a "BRRRRRRZT" noise to simulate shooting the gun. We do the safe escape, come back around, but this time I have a GUN READY light illuminated in the cockpit. I roll in, check the parameters, and come off dry because we're too steep. My base was too close, and I make a mental note to move it out next time around. I'd much rather come off dry, than to break training rules and compromise our safety just to be able to pull the trigger.
Next time around, we roll in, and it looks sweet...the range is clicking down, and I squeeze the trigger to the first detent, then around 6000 feet slant range I pull it all the way back....
What the hell was that, an elephant farting? As soon as the trigger comes back, the entire airplane shakes and vibrates like a massaging mattress gone haywire. Smoke envelopes the entire front of the airplane, and time as we know it seems to slow down. It almost seems like I can distinguish between every bullet that is being fired from the gun, even though that is quite impossible. I let off the trigger after what seems to me forever, and execute my safe escape maneuver. I look at the rounds counter, and realize that I only shot about 40 rounds, which is a little less than a second. Needless to say, I was definately experiencing an adrenaline high. The faint odor of cordite enters the cockpit, then goes away as fast as it came. Now this is what I've been waiting my whole life for, and it was everythng I had hoped it would be, and more! The ranger calls and says it was a shaq, but it really doesn't mean much. There is no way to tell how many of my rounds hit the target, only that I did indeed hit it.
My IP comes over the radio on crosswind and asks how it felt. Without thinking, I blurt out, "F---ING AWESOME!" on the inter-flight radio. Whoops! That's a breach of flight discipline, which I later get downgraded for on my grade sheet. Well, if I only say it once in my career, that was the time to do it. Comm Jam does it again...
We switch to do some low angle strafe passes, starting around 2000 feet above the ground and using 8 to 10 degrees of dive. I shoot at 'the rag', which is a 20 foot by 20 foot banner strung up between two telephone polls. I roll in, pull the pipper on the rag, and open fire at about 5000 feet slant range. For a low angle strafe, that's a long way. Again, the awesome sensation that is a 30mm cannon firing underneath you happens, and I am in awe of the power and death and destruction at my fingertops. My IP encourages me to let the range close more next time around, so I make a mental note to drive closer. The ranger calls and says I had 18 hits. I think I shot about 30 rounds.
Next pass, I see the rag getting bigger, and bigger, ground getting closer, and closer...there's 3000 on the slant range, I can't take it anymore, SHOOT! BRRRRRRRRRRZT! Another 30 rounds into the rag, I get 15 hits. There are acoustic sensors behind a dirt berm in front of the rag that measure the sonic boom of the bullets as they whiz overhead...of course, even if only half my bullets hit the target, in combat, it may only take one or two rounds to kill a tank. We go around for one more pass, I get 16 hits, we safe up our switches and head off the range. We perform a battle damage check to make sure there are no problems with the jets, and give each other thumbs up to indicate we're good to go.
On the way home, we drop by the old England AFB so I can become oriented with it as an emergency divert field. Lead rocks me into close fingertip formation, and we come up initial together. He pitches out, 5 seconds later I do the same to follow him, and we execute low approaches to runway 14. A Delta Connection plane is sitting just short of the runway, waiting to takeoff, and I wonder what they're thinking as these two Hogs come past. Over the threshold, on the go, gear and flaps retracted, I decide to accelerate down the runway....towards the end, i do a stright pullup, once I see 400 feet I pitch out aggressively to the right to rejoin on lead. A few seconds later, tower clears 'Candlier' (Delta Connection) for takeoff, and the pilot says, "Clear for takeoff, thanks for the show!" I think back to when I was sitting right seat in the Dash 8, watching the Bradley Connecticut A-10s do their thing. Talk about motivation!
We RTB, doing some more tactical maneuvering on the way. We come up initial again, pitch out, land, and go to dearming. The dearm crews pin all of lead's bombs, since he was busy chasing me and holding my hand around the pattern, he didn't get to drop. There's always next time.
We taxi in, shutdown, and head to debrief. The only comment he gave me about my improper radio call was "Don't say F--- over the radio ever again!" I told him I wouldn't and he reflected that in my grade sheet. Other than that, I qualified in tactical formation, low angle high drag, and dive bomb. Not bad for my first trip to the range, but there's a lot of work ahead. I'm eagerly looking forward to it, and can't wait to start working in low altitude tactical maneuvering and tactical weapons delivery. First, I have to get the picture in my head for the different deliveries, fix minor parameter problems, and a bunch of other things lead debriefed me on from yesterday. All in all, I can't believe they pay me to do this!
Comm Jam
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
